On July 6, Business Insider reported that Elon Musk fathered twins with Shivon Zilis, a top executive of his company Neuralink, in November 2021.

The birth of the twins, which had been kept secret for over eight months, became public thanks to court documents from the state of Texas. According to the papers, the babies were born just weeks before Musk and Canadian singer Grimes (Claire Boucher) had their second child.

Including the ‘secret twins,’ the billionaire tech mogul’s (known) progeny totals nine: Five with his first wife Justine Musk, two with Grimes, and two with Zilis.

Chinese netizens, who have always been interested in anything and everything Musk-related, were quick to pick up on the latest gossip — as expected. On July 7, a related hashtag went viral on the microblogging platform Weibo and had amassed over 62 million views at the time of writing.

In the comments section, users have made light of Musk’s seemingly infinite wealth and how he doesn’t need to worry about raising one or two more children. One comment with over 6,000 like reads, “This is also part of Musk’s plan to land on the Moon.” Meanwhile, some have speculated that the billionaire has many more secret children.

“He has so many children, won’t he be fined?” joked one netizen while alluding to China’s now-defunct one-child policy. Before the Chinese government ditched the rule, several Chinese celebrities were willing to pay exorbitant fines to have multiple children.

One famous instance revolved around film director Zhang Yimou who, in 2014, paid a fine of 1.23 million USD for having two more children past the permitted quota (in his case, two children, one from his first marriage and one from his second).

Although Zhang only admitted to having fathered four children, rumor has it that he may have as many as seven offspring.

Other sensational Musk-related news from 2022 has included the billionaire’s Chinese doppelganger, who was banned from Chinese social media, and a falling out with one of his other children.

In late June, Musk’s transgender daughter filed a request to officially change her name in hopes of reflecting her new gender identity while also cutting ties with her biological father, which caused quite a stir on Weibo.

Cover image via Wikimedia Commons